With her distinctive voice as a maestra, speaker, and poet, Panamanian-American conductor Kalena Bovell has been hailed by Channel 3 News (Connecticut) as “one of the brightest stars in classical music.” Propelled by a steadfast commitment to artistic mastery and community access, Bovell has emerged as a rising force on the international stage. She is the 2024 recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence—the Sphinx Organization’s highest honor—and completed her tenure as a Taki Alsop Conducting Fellow. In 2023, she made history as the first Black woman to conduct an opera in Canada, leading a world-premiere reimagining of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha.

Bovell’s 2025–2026 season includes debuts with the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, New World Symphony, Redlands Symphony, and Arcadiana Symphony, plus a homecoming with the Hartford Symphony near her graduate alma mater. She also reunites with the Chineke! Orchestra for their 10-year anniversary season, her first appearance with them since their BBC Proms collaboration in 2021.

Recent performance highlights include her fourth appearance with Musikollegium Winterthur in a special New Year’s Eve concert, performances with the Louisiana Philharmonic and Orchestre classique de Montréal, and leading the Sphinx Connect: Concerto Competition Concert. Bovell’s work with the Chineke! Orchestra at the BBC Proms led to her feature on their 2022 Coleridge-Taylor album, praised by The Financial Times for “overflowing with descriptive imagination.” Reviewing her Proms performance, ArtsDesk urged: “Never let her go.” Bovell has twice conducted for the Kennedy Center’s landmark Reframing the Narrative initiative, which celebrates the artistry, leadership, and impact of Black ballet dancers. In 2022, she led Kevin Thomas’s Firebird with the Collage Dance Collective, and in 2024 conducted ballets by Donald Byrd, Kiyon Ross, and Meredith Rainey.

From 2019 to 2023, Bovell was Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Conductor of the Memphis Youth Symphony, leading memorable events including a concert with Hamilton’s Leslie Odom Jr. She made her professional debut in 2015 as Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Sinfonietta, later holding cover conductor roles with the St. Louis and Hartford symphonies. As Music Director of the Civic Orchestra of New Haven (2018–2019), she expanded the orchestra’s size, repertoire, and musicality.

A Los Angeles native, Bovell earned her Master of Music and Graduate Professional Diploma from The Hartt School and a Bachelor of Music Education from Chapman University, which named her a Distinguished Alumna in 2021. Bovell’s late start in classical music – her first private violin lesson at 18 – shaped her artistic philosophy. She worked six jobs to fund lessons, workshops, and travel, a story she shares with organizations from the BBC to the League of American Orchestras and the Sphinx Organization. Also an accomplished poet, Bovell’s original poem, „Tethered Voices,“ was performed by the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra and set to music by James Lee III.  She now lives in Philadelphia, enjoying the city’s arts scene, cooking, writing, weight training, and perfecting homemade pizza.